Topics - Siamese Moose

A few months back I posted about appearing on The List, a syndicated news magazine. At the time my segment was cut really short due to breaking news of the day. Last night they ran a second, different segment, albeit still quite short. Still, here I am! Some was shot at my home (got my club flag prominently displayed), and some at the LHBS, Listermann's, where I teach their classes. The brewery shots are the Listermann/Triple Digit brewery.I can't get the video to embed here, so here's the link: http://www.thelistshow.tv/the-list/around-cincinnati-mojo-medicine-makes-kids-smile-brew-your-own-beer-green-with-envy. I'm the second story of the segment.

I just came across this during one of those idle sessions of following links. They had a booth at the London Bike Show, of all places! The price is 29.95 in British pounds (I can't find the symbol for pounds right now).

Real Ale at home does not get any easier than this!

Turn water into traditional Real Ale using the Moonshine brewing bag. To repeat Water is all you add into our unique, patented system to brew pint after pint of genuine Real Ale.

Two years in development with academic partners (Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University) has resulted in our superb new system. The bag itself contains virtually all you need; just pour in 23 pints of tap water, add the contents of the enclosed sachet of ‘Moondust’ and leave for two weeks.

The result is 25 pints of Real Ale.

No more expensive, cumbersome equipment (which often ends up in the attic), just a bag of Moonshine, water and ten minutes of your time.

Back in the winter we were contacted by a producer from The List, a Scripps syndicated show. They wanted to do a segment on homebrewing. They filmed a little at our house, including mash-in, but left before the sparge because of some breaking story. We just got word that they're showing our segment TONIGHT! The show is The List, at 7:00 here (Cincinnati). The stations that carry it and their times are on their website, http://www.scripps.com/brands/the-list. The exact time of the story should be 7:16-7:24. If you've ever been interviewed by TV you know that they ask some strange questions. I hope it came out well. I also really hope they didn't edit it in a way to make it sound like I said something really stupid. I don't know if it will be available on the web after the airing, but I'll try to find out.

I will be doing a public brew session this Saturday. Our LHBS is also a micro-brewer (Listermann), and is hosting an outdoor summer beer festival. My club is always given space to brew and recruit at their festivals. As a return favor for these events the beer I make goes back to the brewery. They ferment it, which makes it legal, and it becomes a small batch special for their tap room. Kevin, the head brewer, wants me to do a Belgian-American IPA with Mosaic hops. I've tasted Mosaic in other people's beers, but I've never gotten my hands on any to use myself. I'm looking for recommendations on how much to use and when. (I have 4 ounces available.) The other hops available to me are Sterling and Amarillo, and it will be fermented with BSI Ardennes (Chouffe) yeast. I'll be brewing 12 gallons, and shooting for an OG in the range of 1.070. Your recommendations are greatly appreciated!

I hereby lay claim to having made the hoppiest beer in history! I welcome your stories to come knock me off my perch!

I turned 50 last week, and my party is Saturday. My wife turned 50 back in March, and she asked for an Orval clone for her party. (It came out really nice.) So back in March I was already thinking about what I should make. I knew it had to be a hop bomb, but what exactly to do? 50 years, 50 ibus? Nothing special there. How about: 50 ounces of hops? That's right, I used 50 ounces of hops in one ten gallon batch of what I'm calling Hop50. I took my Double IPA recipe and increased the gravity a little, and started acquiring hops. Columbus, cascade, centennial, and simcoe. Despite being advised to cheat by using a bunch of low alpha hops to get to the 50 ounce level (I was offered 25 oz of 0.6% alpha Tettnang), I stuck with varieties appropriate for a Double Imperial. Mash hops, first wort hops, additions every 5 minutes, plus dry hops. It calculates to 362 ibu, but I'm well aware that this is way past the level of solubility for bitterness. The OG was 1.098, FG is 1.025. I ended up with about 7.5 gallons in the fermenter. I lost nearly three gallons to wetting the hops, and that's using mostly pellets!

The finished beer is certainly the highest hop flavor I've ever experienced. However, the perceived bitterness is not as high as I expected. My wife says there's so much going on there that you just can't experience it all (she's a BJCP Master, so she's probably right). The aroma is strong, but not overpowering. If I could afford to do it again, I'd move more of the hops into dry hopping. The malt character (yes, it has detectable malt!) supports the beer really well. I wouldn't change a thing there.

Finally, for the record, Siamese Moose is a new name for my on-line activities, and this is my first post under that name. I'll send a party invite to the first person who names me!